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Report a problem with a drain or gully

Responsibility for sewers and drains is shared between property owners,Yorkshire Water, Highways England, and Barnsley Council.

Property owners (drains on your property)

You're responsible for the repair and maintenance of the drains inside the boundary of your property, up to the point they connect with the public sewer.

Although we're not responsible for repairing drains on your property, we do have a statutory duty to make sure that you keep them clear and in good repair. If you don't, we can issue a notice asking you to make the repairs within a set timescale; we may charge you an administration cost for doing this. If you don't comply with the notice, we’ll make the repairs and invoice you for the cost of any works we’ve done.

Yorkshire Water (public sewers)

They're responsible for maintaining the network of foul and surface water public sewers, which collect water and waste from the drains of properties. Public sewers are usually in roads or public open spaces, but some may run through private gardens; Yorkshire Water has a right of access to these sewers for maintenance.

Contact Yorkshire Water on0345 1 24 24 24.

Highways England (trunk road and motorway drains)

Barnsley Council (drains and gullies on our roads)

We're responsible for keeping the drains and gullies alongside Barnsley's roads clean and free from obstruction, to prevent flooding. These drains/gullies take storm water from the road into the sewer system.

How to report a problem with a drain or gully

To report a blocked street drain or gully, or a missing/loose grate, use our online form below.

You can check if a problem's already been reported, and the status of existing reports, on the map below.

Fill in the form

It only takes a couple of minutes to fill in the form. All you have to do is:

click on the report a problem with a drain or gully button below to start the form

show us on a map where the blockage is

give as much detail as you can about the nature of the blockage

upload a photo of the blocked drain (optional)

click the submit report button

You can report a problem with a drain or gully anonymously, but if you'd like a receipt and reference number for your report, you must provide either your email address or mobile number.

After reporting

Once you've submitted the form, you'll be returned to this webpage, where you’ll see that the drainage problem you’ve reported has appeared as a pin on the map. You may need to wait a couple of minutes and refresh your screen to be able to see the status of the pin on the map.

The pin will remain on the map for at least 28 days, during which time you can come back to the webpage to check the status of your report.

Once the pin drops off the map, you won't be able make further enquiries about your report, unless you have a reference number.

What we'll do

We'll investigate the problem as soon as we can, but we'll prioritise problems that could potentially be environmental or public health hazards.